Australians are leading the way in moving away from using Microsoft's 12-year-old operating system, Windows XP, ahead of UK and US users, according to web analytics company StatCounter.

The company's research arm, StatCounter Global Stats, found in January 2014 that despite XP being the world's second most popular operating system in terms of internet usage, only 7.8 percent of Australians still use it compared to 12.4 percent of US and 9.5 percent of UK users.

"Australian computer users are to be complimented for moving faster than the rest of the world in waving goodbye to XP," said Aodhan Cullen, StatCounter CEO.

According to StatCounter's statistics, there has been a steep drop in XP usage in Australia since the days when it dominated the market. For example, back in July 2008, 71.2 percent of Australians were using XP.

Windows Vista has also experienced similar patters to XP; it peaked back in October 2009 at 31.8 percent, but has since seen a steady slowdown and is now only being used by 4.4 percent of Australians.

Nowadays, a majority (51.9 percent) of Australians prefer Windows 7, where usage peaked in October 2012 at 58.9 percent. Windows 8 is also starting to gain some relevance in the market, and is being used by 8.7 percent of Australians as of February 2014, creating another window of opportunity for Microsoft to stay in the game.

Mac OS X has been increasing in popularity, too. It is now the second most preferred OS in the country, and is being used by 20.5 percent of Australians, with indications that it will continue to grow.

The StatCounter report also highlights continued use of XP as a global risk to businesses and other users, especially with Microsoft long advising that it will end support for the system on April 8, 2014. Updates for Microsoft Security Essentials, however, will be available until July 2015.

In April last year, Microsoft said: "This means that XP customers and partners will no longer receive security updates or be able to take advantage of tech support from Microsoft."

Since completing a degree in journalism, Aimee has had her fair share of covering various topics, including business, retail, manufacturing, and travel. She continues to expand her repertoire as a tech journalist with ZDNet.